John Sexton, NYU's president, teaches a class on government and religion on the university's Abu Dhabi campus every other week.

By Ben Gose

As education techies were turning on to Facebook and Twitter
back in 2007, John Sexton decided to experiment as well—with
e-mail.

If you had e-mailed Mr. Sexton, the president of New York
University, before 2007, either his late wife, Lisa Goldberg, or
his longtime assistant, Dan Evans, would have printed out the
message for Mr. Sexton and responded by typing in his verbal
reply.

Mr. Sexton, 69, is no Luddite; he is the jet-setting head of
what he calls a "global network